


Maybe Twice

by dragonlover



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-02-25
Updated: 2009-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29810334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonlover/pseuds/dragonlover
Summary: In an AU where Dawn married Sweet, she thinks about her life.
Relationships: Dawn Summers/Sweet





	Maybe Twice

_“Dawn may have had the wrong idea in summoning this creature, but... I've seen some of these underworld child bride deals and they never end well. Well, maybe once.” –Anya_

I opened my eyes and blinked lazily. Yawning, I pushed off the covers and sat up in bed. My husband was absent from my side, having left sometime while I slept.

I glanced out the window to see the setting sun, a dark red orb settling within the cracks of the western mountains. _Slept the day away again, huh?_

I stood up and walked over to the large dresser. Slipping off my nightgown, I spread my arms. “ _Pulirlo_.”

Instantly, I became utterly clean, as though I had just showered but without the water. No icky drool on my cheek, nor any morning breath. _Light-years better than anything back home…_

I froze, my hand dropping away from a dress I had been reaching towards. _Home…_ It felt like a lifetime since I had last thought about it, and maybe it had been. Time moved differently in Hamasa – certainly the nights lasted longer than the days in any case.

I was starting to forget my past life, my fake memories fading away to be replaced by new real ones. I could still remember some of the lies the monks had given me: Mom and Buffy hugging me and laughing, Dad kissing my cheek…

I shook my head. It was useless to think about the lies, even if they were nice stories. The real memories, though, they remained fresh and as painful as ever. Doc slicing into my stomach; my sister jumping to her death; being forced to live with a fake robot version of her; being constantly ignored, even by Spike after Buffy came back…

I thought I had loved Spike back then, but I didn’t understand what true love was. Neither did Spike for that matter. He had always claimed to love Buffy more than anything else, but he ended up just letting her die…

She had been caught up in my husband’s spell and had been ready to dance to her death. Spike was right there, but he had just waited around smoking a cigarette while Buffy burst into flames. While everyone else was crying over her dead body, _he_ had comforted me.

The demon, the supposed enemy, was the only one in the room to have thought about _my_ feelings. He really wasn’t the enemy, though. He was just obeying the orders of the god Eleutherios, who had bound him to his talismans.

I was a silly girl and had stolen one such talisman from the magic shop in a stupid attempt to attract attention from my old family. Not realizing what I was doing, I had worn it while begging someone, a god maybe, to be noticed and appreciated. It was the best mistake of my life.

While Willow was exhausting her magics trying to resurrect Buffy once more (God, doesn’t she ever learn?), the demon quietly explained everything to me. Tara and Giles were completely focused on stopping Willow from making the same mistake twice, leaving Anya, the rudest one of the bunch, as the only one of the Scoobies who tried to help me.

Anya had offered large amounts of cash, even her and Xander’s apartment in exchange for me back, but the demon just shook his head. Xander finally placed a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder, and told her it was useless.

_“Don’t worry, baby,”_ the demon had told me. _“In my world, all the pain and suffering you feel will be gone, replaced by joy and excitement.”_ He then held out his hand, and, with a last look at the Scoobies, I accepted it. The world swirled around us and before I knew it we were in Hamasa, land of music.

We stood at the crest of a tall mountain, gazing at the city below. The air was sweet and crisp, and there was not a cloud to be seen to cover up the magnificent array of stars that lit up the night sky. _“No pollution, no smog to ruin a good night here,”_ he explained, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

_“So, what’s your name?”_ I asked him shyly.

_“I’ve got more names than you can count,”_ he told me seriously. _“Why don’t you come up with a name for me?”_

_“Really?”_ Surely I was not deserving of such an honor. Yet… he let me choose.

Unable to come up with anything, I just let him lead me down to his palace. It was not a palace as you would expect; there were no stone walls or a throne room. It was the city, the whole city itself.

He had no house of his own, no castle. What he had was everyone’s houses, their homes, and their stores. Everything, every _one_ belonged to him, and now to me too.

It was a banquet, as he had described. Everyone was full of life and love, and they were all in love with him, and by virtue me. We were at the center of attention and it didn’t bother me at all.

I tried some wine for the first time. Well, I _guess_ it’s wine, anyway. It doesn’t taste like grapes so much as milk… But, anyway, I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at a party. And that’s what a night here is: a party.

I made a load of new friends. Most of them, I can’t remember their names – too long and jumbly. But that’s okay; they’re fine with me calling them whatever I want.

Like I said, time works weird here. That first party may have been just a night, but I think it took the sun about a month to rise. When the light began to seep up over the eastern horizon, everyone went to bed.

We took our friend Charlene’s bedroom for the day. Charlene’s just what I call her, though. She’s really nice, even though she sort of looks like one of those dinos in Jurassic Park – the smart ones. I used to know the name…

Huh.

I guess it doesn’t really matter, though. Charlene is what she is, and she’s really nice.


End file.
